Dark Dirt

Roto tillers are essentially a simple machine made up of 2 wheels, a motor, tines and handles. These 4 components assembled in a variety of ways gives you all the different types of tillers.

The placement of the tines in relation to the wheels determines if it is considered a front tine tiller or a rear tine tiller.

The forces applied to the dirt vary depending on placement and the direction the tines spin.

In a front tine garden tiller the wheels are behind the tines. Most often the tines spin in the same direction that the wheels turn. The tines actually pull the machine along. This makes moving the machine easy but limits the actual ability of the tines to cultivate in hard soil.

Often the tines do not have the strength to dig deep and penetrate the hard dirt so they end up running along the top of the dirt. It is almost impossible for the driver to exert enough downward force to engage the tines effectively.

The front tine tiller is good in soft soil that has been previously worked and only requires seasonal touchups. Most of the garden mini tillers are designed with the tines in front.

One Exception

The one exception to the rule is when the tines of the tiller actually spin opposite to the wheels (counter rotating tines).

In this case the wheels propel the machine forward but the tines dig deep into the soil rather than running along the surface. The driver can easily apply pressure to the handles in order to compensate for the force of the reverse tines.

This reverse tine feature is commonly only seen in larger rear tine tiller models but the Mantis 20 2 cycle Garden Tiller effectively applies this engineering to a small front tine machine.

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